St Mary's

The unifying topic in today’s readings is humility and poverty of spirit. “Blessed are the poor,” Jesus shockingly said in the Sermon on the Mount, and adds “blessed are the humble” – this must be the most succinct yet challenging manifesto of the Christian revolution. The rest of the world was saying, and still says, “Blessed are the rich and powerful for the whole world belongs to them”. In the light of today’s scriptural readings I beg to differ.

In our first reading the listener is asked to behave humbly because there is no cure for the sickness of pride. It is as deadly as Old Testament leprosy. Secondly, the author of the letter to the Hebrews insists that what the followers of Jesus really hunger for is beyond the senses, intangible, spiritual, most certainly beyond materialistic possessions. That is a form of poverty.

Finally the Gospel parable warns that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, while those who humble themselves will be exalted. Know-alls will end up nowhere.

Unfortunately over the last two thousand years of history too many so-called followers of Christianity resisted such calls to poverty and humility, much to the detriment of the Christian message.

In the novel, ‘The Name of the Rose’, by Umberto Ecco there is reference to an occasion when some Franciscan friars challenge the pope of that time with being unfaithful to Christ, because he lived in obscene wealth and luxury  and exercised the power of a worldly emperor. The pope responded by having them executed.

His name is forgotten; but the influence of poor and humble people such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Oscar Romero and Mary MacKillop gives a lie to those who insist the poor and humble are really weak and useless  and have no value in the real world.

One of the more dramatic and challenging of the Vatican II document “The Church in the Modern World”, is the metaphor of “a pilgrim people’.

It described the church in the modern world as inexorably linked to the suffering, dispossessed and powerless of the world- nothing there about the need for wealth to spread the good news. It states-

“The joys and the hopes, the grief’s and anxieties of this age, especially of those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the grief’s and anxieties of the followers of Christ”.  Such words are inspiring to organizations like that of Vinnies the Salvos and Micah.

Much of what the Council had to say was disturbing, especially to those who believed that the church after the Council of Trent and Vatican I (with its insistence on the infallibility of the pope) had “arrived”, and therefore enjoyed the fullness of truth so much that nothing more need really be said, it being all there in the doctrines and dogmas proclaimed over the centuries. John XXIII’s call for aggiornamento (i.e. let us bring our static church into the modern world) was insulting to such people, if not dangerous.

Unquestioning and unquestionable “certainty” by people with power has resulted in the destruction of many special people and much that is beautiful in art and literature. The Inquisition, the Index of Forbidden Books, even the senseless and heartless smashing of the praying monk from the old St Mary’s church is not far removed from the dynamiting of the ancient Buddha statues by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The perpetrators operated on the same principle, beloved by the Pharisees, you must be wrong because we are right.

A truly ‘poor in spirit’ person admits imperfection in knowledge and experience and is always open to change for the better. The opposite of humility is pride and the opposite to a poverty of spirit is self-satisfaction. If we are part of a pilgrim people we must be poor and humble enough to try to follow where the Spirit leads.

Thus for some the image of a pilgrim church finding its way is certainly threatening and uncomfortable- and it is. A lot of former certainties are no longer around to cling to, like some teachings and practices that we innocently accepted as set in stone before we learned more history and began to seek answers.

Let us look at three types of pilgrim:

1. The Mediaeval Type

A pilgrim of those times usually traveling poorly with only the basic necessities, is not self satisfied, certainly needs others along the way, like the kindly innkeepers and good companions found in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, is prepared to go a long way, yet yearns for “home” (like ET in the movie). Nevertheless, such a pilgrim believed with faith and hope that the fullness of  life is not found by standing still (like statues in a park, of use only to the pigeons) and is prepared to risk all in being part of a loving and united community on the same journey. Sometimes they must leave behind places where they had experienced great peace and comfort- as we did with leaving the building up the road. Actually I find great comfort and peace in my membership of St Mary’s in Exile, especially in our Eucharist’s at the TLC.  It is not Canterbury Cathedral or St James’ famous shrine in Compostella, Spain. No use hankering for what once was- up the road. (Ke Moses chastised the wandering tribe of Israelites for hankering after the flesh pots of Egypt and forbade them to look back). Live in the now (anyone who rests on their laurels is wearing them in the wrong place). Our cluster meetings also are pleasant oases along the path we follow in seeking to live out our understanding of the gospel in its practice.

2.  Another image of the pilgrimage comes from Africa. The Swahili word “safari” has recently changed to now mean an organized hunting expeditions for well heeled tourists. However the term originally referred to a nomadic community’s long and arduous journey to find food and shelter with the changing of the seasons. They sought a home where their group’s needs would be satisfied and their inner yearnings truly satisfied, otherwise they would die.

3. Finally an image for ‘the oldies’. Remember a TV series starring Ward Bond called, “Wagon Train”? The early movement of settlers across the United States was typified by the covered wagons featured in many Hollywood movies. The people involved were generally families who were prepared to risk everything in the hope of finding a new and better world across the plains and over the mountains. They did not know where they were going, but they knew what they were leaving behind. They found comfort and support in each other. When threatened they tended to move their wagons into a circle and wait until they felt free to move on. They were genuine pilgrims.

If you apply this metaphor of pilgrimage to the church within history then the people of God are in the moving wagons seeking a new life. The rangers and scouts  who go ahead looking for the safest way through an unknown land  are the theologians and mystics, (like the authors of those books on the back table).

The Vatican by the way claims to be the sheriff and the deputies but, unfortunately for them, the caravan has moved on. This leaves the wagon master to inspire, strengthen and comfort his uncertain, poor and humble family which is on the move. He has to be the spirit of Jesus showing wisdom and grace. His words, as found in the Gospels, will keep the community together and on track; or everyone will end up dead, or at least hungry and thirsty in a desert or hopelessly lost up a blind canyon somewhere!

These are all images of a people on the move, seeking truth and a life that will set them free. We should accept that we are a pilgrim people trying to follow the way that Jesus showed us. We hope to feel his presence around the table when we break bread together. In faith, hope and love we can humbly try to be faithful in seeking justice and peace on our journey together, and especially for the least of his sisters and brothers.